15 Things You Didn’t Know About Harry Kane

England captain Harry Kane has blown us all away with his incredible performances during this year’s World Cup. Whether it’s remaining level-headed to score a wonder penalty despite the time-wasting antics of the opposition, or leading his team to a composed victory over Sweden in the quarter finals, Kane has impressed from start to finish. He is currently two goals clear of Romelu Lukaku in the race for the Golden Boot and recently stated that England’s only target is “finishing the job” in Russia now that they’ve reached the semi finals.

Off the pitch, Kane has a strong social media presence and as the captain of the England team he regularly talks to the press at conferences and in interviews. However, we’ve compiled a list of 15 fascinating facts that you might not know about the English striker. Scroll down to find out more about Kane’s hobbies when he’s not playing football, as well as the real reason Arsenal rejected him as a school boy!

15. He went to the same school as David Beckham

Kane went to Chingford Foundation School in the North London, the same high school as England star David Beckham. Kane was a promising footballer for Chingford at a very young age. “Harry was clever, articulate and very humble,” said the English teacher Denis McElligott, who also managed one of the school football teams in which Kane starred. “If we were struggling during a game, the tactic would be ‘just give it to Harry’, and he would smash one in from the corner flag.”

Kane has a few other things in common with Beckham. Both men went on to captain the English national team and have also starred in ads for men’s fragrances. However, Beckham got engaged to pop star Posh Spice whilst Kane is engaged to his high school sweetheart Katie Goodland. Furthermore, he’s never been tempted to get a tattoo because “my dad always told me I would regret it when I was older”.

14. Arsenal rejected him for being overweight

As a young boy, Kane played for Ridgeway Rovers, where Beckham and Crystal Palace winger Andros Townsend also began their playing careers. However, he was rejected by Arsenal and Tottenham and also had an unsuccessful trial at Watford. Liam Brady was in charge of Arsenal’s academy at the time, and admitted that one of the main reasons they let him go was the fact that he was overweight. “He was a bit chubby,” he said. “He wasn’t very athletic, but we made a mistake.” While at Watford, Kane played so well in a game against Tottenham that their coaches decided to re-sign him. “If you’d have said to me at 11 or even 14, would he go on to have the career he’s had? I probably would have said: ‘I doubt it,’” says David Bricknell, Kane’s coach at Ridgeway.

13. He has a questionable taste in films

For some reason, Kane’s favourite film is Law Abiding Citizen (2009), an action flick starring Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx. It only receives 26% on Rotten Tomatoes, but Kane must have enjoyed it enough to rate it as his favourite movie of all time – we’re hoping he hasn’t seen that many films in his lifetime then! Furthermore, when Kane likes something he sticks with it. In a 2014 interview, Kane stated that his favourite TV programme was Dexter, which was still popular despite having finished the previous year. In an interview this year, Kane said that his favourite TV show was…Dexter. Still. “It just had me gripped from the start,” he said.

12. He is having an unusual World Cup

If we take into consideration shots on target, Kane is actually not having the best of World Cups, which perhaps reflects on the limited number of chances that England have created. Whilst he has scored six from six, there are 24 players in the tournament who have had more shots on goal than him. At the Euros two years ago he had 13 shots and failed to put any in the back of the net, while in the 2017-18 Premier League season he had 184 goal attempts (40 more than anyone else), 108 of which were off target, and 30 of which went in.

11. Harry divides his time between two houses

Whilst we’re sure a premier league footballer can afford as many houses as they want, Kane’s set-up is still a little strange considering he’s happily engaged to fiancée Katie Goodland. He and Katie (who is currently pregnant with their second child) have a family home in Essex, complete with swimming pool, cinema room and golf simulator, which they share with their daughter Ivy and two dogs. However, last year in an interview, the Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino revealed that the England striker has a second house near Tottenham’s training ground which he stays in during the week. This allows him to spend extra hours honing his footballing skills. Kane’s work ethic is infamous, and his investment says a lot about what he wants to achieve during his playing career.

10. His older brother gets mistaken for him a lot

Hmmm…we’re not quite sure what to make of this, but apparently Harry Kane’s older brother Charlie gets mistaken for his famous sibling a lot of the time. For many brothers this could get quite annoying, but Charlie has admitted that he loves it. He’s even signed autographs for fans who were convinced that he was Harry. Charlie is pictured right on the photo above and left on the photo below – in both cases we don’t think we’d be too confused between them, but Charlie isn’t complaining, as he gets free drinks and attends awards ceremonies thanks to his famous bro.

9. He’s one of only five players to win back-to-back Premier League Player of the Month Awards

Does exactly what it says on the tin – Kane is one of only five players in Premier League history to win the award in a consecutive month. He’s keeping good company because the other players to do so are none other than footballing legends Robbie Fowler, Dennis Bergkamp, Cristiano Ronaldo and Jamie Vardy. Kane is still only 24 years old, so we can’t wait to see what other kinds of achievements he racks up in the next few seasons!

8. His dad is fluent in Irish Gaelic

Harry’s dad Pat Kane is a native Irish speaker who originally hails from Connemara in the West of Ireland. The area has traditionally strong associations with Irish culture and contains a major part of the Connacht Irish-speaking Gaeltacht, which also happens to be the largest Gaeltacht in the Republic of Ireland. The England striker would surely have heard a lot of Irish spoken in his London home growing up.

7. He nearly played for the Republic of Ireland

Over the course of the World Cup, Harry Kane has become synonymous with the England team – he’s a proud captain and a reliable goalscorer. However, he was tempted to switch allegiances to the Republic of Ireland early on in his career and gave the move some serious consideration. He was eligible to play for the country through his father, who is from Galway. However, in August 2014 he decided against the move and said that he wanted to break into the England senior team. Prior to that news, former Ireland boss Martin O’Neill claimed that Kane had shown a protracted interest in receiving a call up to the ROI squad.

6. Harry was born only 5 miles away from White Hart Lane

We love our home-grown footballing heroes – Alan Shearer and Newcastle United, Robbie Fowler and Liverpool FC. But did you know that Harry Kane was born only five miles away from White Hart Lane in Chingford, a suburban area in North East London? Now he’s hammering in goals for his local team week in, week out – a childhood dream!

5. He has played and scored for England at 5 different levels

Harry Kane has represented the Three Lions at five different levels during his career to date – at Under-17 level, Under-19 level, Under-20 level, Under-21 level and, of course, senior level.

Furthermore, he has scored whilst playing at every single one of these levels: 2 goals in 3 appearances for the Under-17s, 6 goals in 14 appearances for the Under-19s, 1 goal in 3 appearances for the Under-20s, 8 goals in 14 appearances for the Under-21s and 4 goals in 10 appearances since breaking through into the senior team. Impressive stats.

4. He’s the first player since Gary Lineker to score 25 league goals for Spurs in a season

Harry Kane’s goalscoring record has been unbelievable since he first broke into the Tottenham first season in 2014. From 2014-15 he scored 21 League goals and 31 goals in all competitions. The following season he scored 25 goals in the Premier League and 28 in all competitions. This latest statistic means that Kane was the first player to reach that record since legendary Spurs striker Gary Lineker did so in the 1991-92 season. Only Teddy Sheringham, Jürgen Klinsmann and Gareth Bale have reached 20 in one season since then – good company for the young striker to be in.

3. He loves following a lot of other sports

Harry Kane is not just football mad, he’s sports mad. He loves cricket, enjoys watching and playing golf, and often Instagrams pictures of himself with famous sports stars, including Anthony Joshua (pictured below at the Echo Arena in Liverpool). Kane even jokingly offered to fight UFC legend Conor McGregor on Twitter!

He is also a massive fan of American football, and named one of his dogs after the star quarterback Tom Brady. “He reminded me of me,” Kane said. “Brady believed in himself so much – and he just kept working and working, almost obsessively, in order to get better.” In fact, his dream is to become an NFL placekicker when he retires from football. “It depends on how my career goes and injuries and how I age,” he said, “but I’d love to.” Watch out NFL!

2. Kane is still with his childhood sweetheart

Harry Kane is currently engaged to his childhood sweetheart Katie Goodland, news which excited fans who found an old photograph of the couple posing with David Beckham when they were school kids! The couple are very happy together and Katie often posts photos of herself on social media at matches and their family home.

Kane publicly confirmed the relationship in February 2015, telling Esquire magazine: “We went to school together, so she’s seen my whole career. Of course, she’s finding it a little crazy. I think she’s even been in the papers a couple of times taking the dogs out”.

1. Some people argued that Spurs were better off without him a couple of seasons ago!

Kane has already become a talisman for Tottenham Hotspur and is beloved by fans of the club, and yet a remarkable statistic from just a couple of months ago suggested that the club would have more points this season without the star player in their team.

The statistic was presented on Sky Sports’ website back in February 2016 and showed that, without Kane’s goals, Spurs would only have had one point less than they had with him in their side. The statistics show that Kane’s own goal against Swansea cost the team two points – meaning that Spurs would have had a point more without him playing. We’re not sure that too many people took this seriously, but it’s interesting all the same!